Issue creating the USB installation disk

brianbourke75 · 2011-12-01 00:37:59

I have been attempting to create the USB installation disk and have been running into quite a lot of trouble. Every time I try to create the usb disk using the standard method (being dd if=./arch.iso of=/dev/sdb) it always creates a disk with a recursive partition on /dev/sdb. Perhaps it's my laptop which cannot handle this but my system cannot boot off a disk with this characteristic. This happens regards of using the net or core install (or archboot for that matter).

I had a small amount of success by manually installing the arch files onto a manually partitioned disk but the process started failing when attempting to mount some of the sfs files.

I have been trying to bend my brain to this problem all day and would very much like any feedback or solution people could offer. Unity is annoying me and I really want to get back into Arch world :-(

Thanks!
Brian

djgera · 2011-12-01 01:10:38

Thats true, isohybrid is a hack that does this "recursive" thing.

All you need to do using the better method (non-dd) is:

Create the partition sdX1 on /dev/sdX, mark as active, format with FAT or EXT2/3/4 then:

dd bs=440 count=1 conv=notrunc if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sdX # Or just: cat /usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin > /dev/sdX
dosfslabel /dev/sdX1 ARCH_201108 # If sdX1 is FAT
e2label /dev/sdX1 ARCH_201108 # If sdX1 is EXT2/3/4
mount archlinux-2011.08.19-netinstall-i686.iso /mnt/iso
mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt/usb
cp -r /mnt/iso/arch /mnt/usb
extlinux -i /mnt/usb/arch/boot/syslinux #This works for FAT too :)
umount /mnt/usb
umount /mnt/iso

Last edited by djgera (2011-12-01 01:11:25)

brianbourke75 · 2011-12-01 01:18:20

I tried the above method and had some success but I ran into trouble when loading the arch install environment. The process froze when attempting to mount the "root-something.fs.sfs" at which point I threatened my computer with a thousand lashes and still it refused to unfreeze. Any thoughts on what could be causing this?

djgera · 2011-12-01 01:29:37

Weird, can you provide an screenshot? how is your machine, CPU/RAM?

Do you try any of latest testisos? http://releng.archlinux.org/

brianbourke75 · 2011-12-01 01:35:40

I will go ahead and try it again and take a snapshot but I just discovered that the HP BIOS does not handle isohybrid images so that offers some insight but not a work around.

brianbourke75 · 2011-12-01 02:28:21

Ok, so I tried the above method (plus remembering to mark the partition with the bootable flag) and this time it failed while attempting to mount the cowspace thingy. I think I am going to try to use my CD bay tomorrow when I return to work to hopefully get around these issues, but I am not optimistic since I also tried using a USB CD drive and ran into the same problem presumably due to the fact that the BIOS still cannot work with a isohybrid CD.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/1128 … 3665206770

brain0 · 2011-12-02 09:37:40

brianbourke75 wrote:

Ok, so I tried the above method (plus remembering to mark the partition with the bootable flag) and this time it failed while attempting to mount the cowspace thingy. I think I am going to try to use my CD bay tomorrow when I return to work to hopefully get around these issues, but I am not optimistic since I also tried using a USB CD drive and ran into the same problem presumably due to the fact that the BIOS still cannot work with a isohybrid CD.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/1128 … 3665206770

I don't see an error here.

brianbourke75 · 2011-12-02 11:48:52

It does not report any errors, it simply locks up and does not continue beyond the point in the snapshot.

brianbourke75 · 2011-12-02 13:23:57

Just for the record, I grabbed my CD bay from work and burnt the iso to an actual CD and tried that and got a bit further although it still fails, only this time it hangs a couple of lines further down when mounting a different sfs file.

brianbourke75 · 2011-12-02 14:04:55

The saga continues.... Just for to go through the motions, I just installed arch on a virtual machine without any issues so I am sure that the iso can work under the some circumstances.

djgera · 2011-12-02 14:05:23

maybe something goes bad between your hardware/firmware vs kernel. You have tested any of latest testisos?

Also try booting with bootparam: ignore_loglevel

brianbourke75 · 2011-12-02 14:38:37

Downloading the lastest and greatest test iso now, I will let you know.

brianbourke75 · 2011-12-02 15:25:53

Ran the 2011.12.01 and it hung up on the command i2x_register_adapter if that means anything to you.

djgera · 2011-12-02 17:34:01

kernel panic? i2c_register_adapter

Try bootparm:

modprobe.blacklist=i2c-core

brianbourke75 · 2011-12-02 17:40:21

Any thoughts on how to set a boot parameter?

djgera · 2011-12-02 18:17:50

Press [Tab] to edit options in syslinux then add it in such line

brianbourke75 · 2011-12-02 18:43:07

It exhibits the same behavior at the same point.

brianbourke75 · 2011-12-02 21:57:31

Alright, so I have gotten some progress. I have figured it is the display which is not working. When I assume that we are at the command prompt and type "reboot" it does so, so clearly there is something going on with the display drivers. So now I suppose I have to get into Kernel Mode Setting which I know next to nothing about so I guess it is time to educate myself.

brianbourke75 · 2011-12-03 00:25:22

I am happy to say that I have made this post from a working arch install. The issue was an with the nouveau driver which I blacklisted and everything else was straightforward. So the issue was the video framebuffer crapped out mid boot and yielded a red herring situation.

Thanks for all the help!

zhangxiao · 2011-12-21 15:31:15

brianbourke75 wrote:

I am happy to say that I have made this post from a working arch install. The issue was an with the nouveau driver which I blacklisted and everything else was straightforward. So the issue was the video framebuffer crapped out mid boot and yielded a red herring situation.
Thanks for all the help!

Maybe I am having the same problem... how did you exactly resolve it?

karol · 2011-12-21 15:34:03

zhangxiao wrote:

brianbourke75 wrote:
I am happy to say that I have made this post from a working arch install. The issue was an with the nouveau driver which I blacklisted and everything else was straightforward. So the issue was the video framebuffer crapped out mid boot and yielded a red herring situation.
Thanks for all the help!
Maybe I am having the same problem... how did you exactly resolve it?

Check if you're not blacklisting the graphics driver.

zhangxiao · 2011-12-21 15:40:30

karol wrote:

zhangxiao wrote:
brianbourke75 wrote:
I am happy to say that I have made this post from a working arch install. The issue was an with the nouveau driver which I blacklisted and everything else was straightforward. So the issue was the video framebuffer crapped out mid boot and yielded a red herring situation.
Thanks for all the help!
Maybe I am having the same problem... how did you exactly resolve it?
Check if you're not blacklisting the graphics driver.

Hmm... how to do that

karol · 2011-12-21 15:46:53

Try searching the wiki e.g. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ke … acklisting

zhangxiao · 2011-12-21 19:24:35

karol wrote:

Try searching the wiki e.g. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ke … acklisting

Thanks... I read the Wiki page. However what i don't get is how should I check the blacklisting before boot up? I did not add any bootparam so there is no blacklisting i guess...?

karol · 2011-12-21 19:41:31

You can boot a liveCD and inspect the configs.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-12-01 00:37:59

Issue creating the USB installation disk

#2 2011-12-01 01:10:38

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#3 2011-12-01 01:18:20

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#4 2011-12-01 01:29:37

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#5 2011-12-01 01:35:40

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#6 2011-12-01 02:28:21

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#7 2011-12-02 09:37:40

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#8 2011-12-02 11:48:52

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#9 2011-12-02 13:23:57

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#10 2011-12-02 14:04:55

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#11 2011-12-02 14:05:23

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#12 2011-12-02 14:38:37

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#13 2011-12-02 15:25:53

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#14 2011-12-02 17:34:01

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#15 2011-12-02 17:40:21

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#16 2011-12-02 18:17:50

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#17 2011-12-02 18:43:07

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#18 2011-12-02 21:57:31

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#19 2011-12-03 00:25:22

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#20 2011-12-21 15:31:15

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#21 2011-12-21 15:34:03

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#22 2011-12-21 15:40:30

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#23 2011-12-21 15:46:53

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#24 2011-12-21 19:24:35

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

#25 2011-12-21 19:41:31

Re: Issue creating the USB installation disk

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